Part 1, Chapter 4 Summary

Adams' time at home was brief before he went to Baltimore and another session of Congress. With him went a new delegate, James Lovell. Abigail resigned herself to another year's melancholy, made worse by the fact that she was again pregnant. Thomas Paine's dictum, "These are the times that try men's souls," summed up the bleak military situation. Philadelphia was lost to the British. Things looked up at Christmastime, when Washington was victorious at Trenton and Princeton. The winter of 1776-77 brought white desolation to coastal Massachusetts, and by spring, Abigail was uncomfortably large and clumsy. The remnants of Congress had returned to Philadelphia, and Adams was homesick and overworked. He began wondering if he was miscast for public life. He counseled his children by letters about their future occupations. Abigail scrimped and managed the farm expertly, but she was filled...